Scranton Mayor Dropping Democratic Guv Bid. Will Run For State Senate Seat Instead.

UPDATE: The Doherty campaign has officially confirmed this report. Mayor Doherty is dropping his gubernatorial bid and will run for state Senate.

"He wants to be able to focus on the issues he's been focusing on -- jobs and the economy. Once the Senate seat came open, it was an opportunity to do so," spokesman Mark Nevins told us this afternoon.

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty ...
... is abandoning his bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and will run instead for the state Senate seat being vacated by longtime Minority Leader Bob Mellow, two sources familiar with his thinking said this afternoon.

Doherty, 51, will make what’s being billed as a “major announcement” about his candidacy and “the open 22nd state Senate District” seat at 11 a.m. on Thursday on the grounds of a new medical school being built in Scranton.

Doherty’s spokesman, Mark Nevins, declined to comment on the three-term mayor’s political plans. But two sources familiar with his thinking confirmed that Doherty will jump into an increasingly crowded primary field.

Mellow, the Senate’s longest-serving member, announced earlier this month that he planned to step down when his term ends in December. The Peckville Democrat was elected to the chamber in 1970.

Speculation about Doherty’s political future has been swirling since early February, when he took a pass on seeking the Democrats’ gubernatorial endorsement during a snowy state committee weekend in Lancaster.

Reports surfaced that he was mulling a bid for lieutenant governor, perhaps as a running-mate to Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

Those reports gained traction when it was revealed that Doherty’s wife, Donna, had e-mailed friends and supporters asking them to vote in an online poll pairing her husband with Onorato.

Soon after Mellow’s announcement, it also emerged that Doherty had been approached about Mellow’s seat. At the time, his camp did not dismiss them.

If he does jump in, Doherty will be join an existing three-person primary field that includes state Rep. Jim Wanscacz, D-Lackawanna.

Frank Scavo, a Republican from Old Forge, Lackawanna County, had already announced a fall challenge. Several other Democrats, including state Department of Community and Economic Development official John Blake, have also been mentioned as possible candidates for Mellow’s seat.